Mama's boy

I don't know if it's the age or the fact that we spend so much time together, but Alex is really becoming a mamas boy all of a sudden.  He's never been a particularly clingy kid.  Always happy to be with other people, or playing.  But lately, it's all me, all the time.  He wants to be held, ALL THE TIME.  Not even just when we're out.  At home too.  He wants to be held while I'm cooking dinner.  He wants to sit on my lap when I'm trying to go to the bathroom.  It's like I forgot to put fabric softener in the laundry and he's sticking to me like static cling.

He won't even go to John, much to John's dismay.  It doesn't help that I've been giving John grief about being a lazy dad, the only time he spends time with Alex is if I am unavailable and then it's just Alex running around while John watches TV, occasionally shouting "don't climb on that!" from the sofa.  Now John thinks Alex doesn't like him because Alex only wants me.  In some ways, it's payback.  Alex had always been more of a Daddy's boy in the past.  I do all the work, and John was getting all the love.  Now the work to love ratio is skewed in the other direction and I'm feeling a little bit smothered. 

I'm wondering if it has anything to do with my parenting style lately.  I've recently read a book about positive discipline and Alex's clingyness seems to coincide with about the time that I started implementing some of the suggestions from the book.  Maybe he's just responding to my more positive attitude.

I'm sure Alex will go back to being a Daddy's boy soon enough though.  In the meantime, I'm going to enjoy the extra snuggles while I can.